Diseae pattern, seasonal variation and major cause of death in indoor patients at medical units of civil hospital, Karachi

ABSTRACT

A descriptive study to determine the disease pattern, seasonal variation [if any] and major cause of death in admitted patients of all medical units of Civil Hospital, Karachi was conducted. A total of 851 records of all five medical units were randomly selected from July 1999 to June 2000. The mean age of patients was 44 years and 26 percent were below 30 years of age. Majority of the patients [78 percent] belonged to Karachi. Out of these 36.5 percent patients came from District South where this hospital is located. The mean duration of stay was 9.3 +/- 7.4 days. Liver disease was the main cause of admission on single disease basis as well as co - disease basis. This also remained higher in all the seasons except between Jan-March period, when respiratory disease was on the top. Out of 851 patients, 155 [18.2 percent] deaths were recorded. Liver disease was also the main cause of death in indoor patients followed by CVA, Respiratory, TB, and Cardiac diseases. Out of 155deaths, 89 [57.4 percent] died within 60 hours of admission, showing that majority came to this hospital at terminal stage of the disease